first published week of: 11/18/2013
Comscore's latest US marketshare numbers tell the story. In the US, according to the UK Guardian newspaper:
. . .Google has gone from having at least 31m users on the iPhone in April 2012 - and perhaps as many as 35m in September 2012, based on a model using a sliding scale of maps ownership - to around 6.3m who are using it monthly. . .
That is as many as 29 million people who've left Google Maps behind in the US alone - and its probably similar outside the US.
There are two important takeaways.
First, Apple's initial problems with Maps hasn't kept it from becoming the standard iPhone map app. Second, this hurts Google because they are increasingly selling location-based ads. Losing the affluent iPhone audience diminishes their selling proposition and costs them real money.
The Storage Bits take Launch fiascos are nothing new in tech - Obama take note - and it was worse for Apple because of their reputation for quality. But they've recovered.
Google's smart move to limit turn-by-turn navigation to the Android platform - stiffing iOS - boomeranged, hurting their core ad business. continued…